ARgENTUM Apothecary is a luxury British skincare and fragrance house with nearly a decade of history in the China market. 

However, the brand had not yet found a way to connect with the Chinese consumer community on its own doorstep, in the UK. The brand’s flagship boutique is in Notting Hill, which is also home to a significant and growing population of Chinese residents and visitors with both the means and the inclination to engage with luxury British skincare – exactly the consumers ARgENTUM wanted to reach.

TONG was brought in to close that gap by designing influencer-led campaigns that would drive awareness, footfall to the Notting Hill boutique, and traffic to the brand’s website, beginning with the highest-stakes commercial moment of the western eCommerce calendar: Black Friday.

The strategic challenge here was different from a typical China market entry brief, as ARgENTUM was already well known in China. The aim was to make Chinese consumers living in or visiting the UK aware that the brand had a physical home on their doorstep, and that Black Friday was the ultimate moment to experience it.

This shifted the brief away from awareness-building in the traditional sense, and towards translating existing brand equity in China into real-world behaviour in the UK through visits and purchases in the Notting Hill boutique.

Strategic Foundation: Bridging Two Markets Through One Audience

The target audience was well-defined: Chinese consumers living in or visiting the UK, already embedded in Chinese social platforms and possibly already familiar with ARgENTUM. For this group, rather than an introduction, the brand needed to stimulate action and a trusted voice to deliver it.

TONG identified Xiaohongshu (Rednote) as the key channel for reaching the target audience. Heavily used by overseas Chinese communities, the platform is a lifestyle handbook, travel guide, and product discovery engine. Using our own UK lifestyle-focused account on the platform allowed for paid amplification to audiences interested in luxury and beauty in the UK, while influencer partnerships helped break into tight-knit diaspora communities through trusted recommendations.

The promotional hook of Black Friday provided the commercial context, but the campaign’s tone was carefully managed to ensure ARgENTUM Apothecary’s luxury positioning remained intact. The message was never simply a “discount,” but it was positioning the right moment to discover the brand.

Channel Execution: Targeting on Xiaohongshu 

On Xiaohongshu, TONG produced content built around distinct pillars: from product introductions establishing the brand’s credentials and formulation story to Black Friday promotional guides walking readers through the discount structure and checkout process.

Paid advertising was also used to significantly amplify reach, generating hundreds of thousands of impressions among precisely targeted luxury, beauty, and self-care audiences. 

Influencer Strategy: Listening to Trusted Voices

TONG collaborated with 15 KOCs and KOLs from a variety of lifestyle, shopping, and skincare niches. This deliberately varied array of influencers was designed to extend reach across overlapping audience groups while keeping the content feeling native and unforced.

The brief to creators was to share a genuine experience, which meant personalised content included unboxings, sensory responses to ARgENTUM’s fragrance collections, real skin reactions to the Silver Cream, and more, all of which read as an authentic recommendation to followers. The brand’s ingredient story around the role of Silver Hydrosol and DNA HP generated genuine curiosity in comment sections, with followers asking questions that reflected real interest and purchase intent. Timing was also strategically planned, with posts going up ahead of the promotional dates to stimulate interest, and during to sustain momentum.

The campaign confirmed that for a brand with existing equity in China, the opportunity in the UK Chinese consumer market is significant, and underexplored. The combination of trusted creator voices, paid targeting, and a defined commercial moment proved an effective formula for driving awareness and action.

The campaign supported ARgENTUM Apothecary’s best-ever Black Friday – a result the client attributed in part to the campaign’s reach and impact, alongside the strong online consumer engagement generated.

• In-store impact: ARgENTUM’s Notting Hill boutique team reported a noticeable increase in Chinese customers visiting and purchasing during the campaign period – a direct demonstration of translating digital influence into real-world behaviour.
• Brand visibility: hundreds of thousands of impressions across influencer content and on Xiaohongshu built strong awareness among an audience segment previously overlooked.
• Cultural resonance: Comment sentiment reflected genuine consumer excitement for the brand’s unboxing experience, curiosity about hero ingredients, intent to visit and purchase, and enthusiasm from people wanting to share it.